AS I SEE IT
By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor
Watford City Mayor Phil Riely hit the nail on the head when he says there is a love-hate relationship between Watford City residents on what to do with the city’s deer population. Some residents love seeing the deer in their yards and provide them with food during the winter, while other residents see the deer as nothing more than pests that are destroying their gardens, flowers and trees.
While seeing deer in the community 10 to 15 years ago was a rare occurrence, today it is commonplace. Part of the problem is that as the city limits expanded, the deer population that called those former fields, slews and creek bottoms their home were suddenly living within the city. And with no natural predators, plenty of food and shelter, the number of deer living within the city limits began to grow exponentially.